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In 1903 while speaking of the fame and popularity of his nemesis, Mr. Booker T. Washington, W. E. B. Dubois, the premiere Black intellectual of his day said, “Easily the most striking thing in the history of the American Negro since 1876 is the ascendancy of Mr. Booker T. Washington.” Change a few words, and the same thing might be said of the unexpectedly close and warm friendship of former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Joe Biden.
Activists hope Election Day in Columbus brought more accountability and transparency for the Columbus Division of Police. Columbus city leaders and the county’s newly elected county prosecutor Gary Tyack talk the talk, but will they follow through on promises of investigating and challenging the police when called for?
Issue 2, establishing a Civilian Review Board (CRB) with oversight over the Columbus police, won in a landslide. The bar for greater police accountability was raised even higher after long-time Republican County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien was defeated by Tyack, a Democrat and the former 10th District Court of Appeals (Franklin County) Court Judge.
O’Brien’s support for police and the cold, statue-like approach he exudes towards any victims of police is reflected in his record and highly criticized by local activists. During his 20-plus year tenure, only one case of police misconduct – resulted in criminal indictments. This case came from within the VICE unit, as one officer repeatedly abused sex workers, eventually killing one. Yet from 2013 to 2019, Columbus police killed 40 people, 27 of them Black.
Thursday, November 19, 7-8pm, this event will be occurring via Zoom
Why and to whom are tax incentives given and who is benefiting from them? This month’s Move to Amend Central Ohio virtual presentation will explore the quid pro quo of campaign contributions from developers, the Columbus Partnership, and other corporations in Columbus that in return receive tax abatements and city income tax exemptions. This presentation will also consider the adverse impacts of such agreements on affordable housing, educational opportunities, and efforts to fight poverty. Our guest presenter will be Joe Motil, a longtime Columbus resident and activist who is a leading expert on tax abatements in Columbus.
Join the Zoom meeting by clicking this link.
Contact: Sandy Bolzenius, columbus@movetoamend.org or 614-843-6170
Hosted by Move to Amend Central Ohio.
Mostly quiet on the midwestern front.
The usual Republican lie was put forward in Akron. The Akron police warned the public about robocalls telling them the voting lines were too long today and they should wait to vote until Wednesday, according to a See Say 2020 post. The FBI is reportedly investigating the robocalls, according to USA Today.
Also, the perennial election official problem of simply not having the proper paper backup ballots happened when voting machines stopped working in Reynoldsburg, Ohio, someone posted on See Say 2020.
My wife and I found it a little more difficult than expected to vote on paper in Columbus’ 55 Ward precinct. First, paper wasn’t offered as an option, and when we asked for a paper ballot, their initial impulse was to give us a provisional ballot. One of the poll judges thought we were breaking the rules until another one interceded and explained that we were allowed to fill out a paper ballot and feed it into the digital scanner. Also, the pollworker writing down our names managed to spell both of them wrong.
The big news is that the electronic pollbooks in Franklin County, Ohio (Columbus) provided by the vendor KnowInk crashed due to problems uploading data overnight, according to the Franklin County Board of Elections.
Thankfully all polling places had back-up paper pollbooks when I voted this morning. I was checked in the old-fashioned way.
There was some concern that paper sign-in would be slower, but due to record early voting the lines were nonexistent at the Near East side inner-city Ward 55 at mid-morning.
Election integrity activists, including myself, generally favor paper pollbooks over electronic “black box” pollbooks. For one, it is much easier to match your signature with a pen and paper than with a stylus, which might cause a challenge by election workers. Electronic pollbooks are easily hackable, can be programmed with incorrect information that only shows up Election Day, and often go down at inopportune times – like today.
“Premature declarations of elections outcome” is the hot-potato phrase being passed around by lawyers, political operatives and journalists. It sounds way too Trumpian, but if it were to happen from either Trump or Biden it could spell disaster this week and the weeks after.
For older activists, especially those who remember Woody Hayes calling for peace between anti-war protesters and the National Guard as they faced-offed on the Oval, it boggles the mind Tuesday’s outcome could potentially ignite a deranged civil war on our downtown streets where not even the ghost of Woody can save us.
Peaceful rallies at the Statehouse called for by local and national progressives are scheduled for Wednesday night and Saturday, and no matter Tuesday’s outcome, hopefully the gun-toting red hats won’t be itchin’ for a fight, but we know how they lust to be shootin’ them dangerous Antifas.
Tuesday, November 3, 2020, 7pm
1755 E Broad St, Columbus,
Join your local organizing community for an election night watch party! We will be gathering in Franklin Park and providing food and drink. Please bring your own seats and masks!!!
I’ll never forget the first time I was warned that COVID-19 might disrupt our lives. It was early March, and I was meeting with other board members of a local social-dance group. On the agenda was the question of whether we would soon need to cancel our events to keep our dancers safe.
Naively, I doubted it would come to that, reasoning that U.S. health authorities would be able to control the outbreak since they could learn from China’s experiences. That, of course, turned out to be disastrously wrong. Instead, President Donald J. Trump and the rest of the government totally botched the country’s pandemic response.
If you still have any doubts about that, you might want to set aside an hour to watch The Curve. Written and directed by Adam Benzine and bankrolled through crowdfunding, the documentary is a step-by-step explanation of just what went wrong.
